US gives Ukraine AN/TPQ Firefinder Radar System
The United States handed over a new batch of counter-battery AN/TPQ Firefinder radar systems to Ukraine. The radars can locate enemy weapons, following the trajectories of projectiles, missiles and mines. Ukraine received four AN/TPQ-36 systems and ten AN/TPQ-49 systems.
The handover ceremony took place at the Boryspil airport on Saturday. It was attended by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Jeffrey Pyatt.
Last year, the first batch of US counter-battery radars was transported to Lviv.
“We have already had a very positive experience using these systems. Furthermore, Ukrainian experts have upgraded them. Thanks to these stations, hundreds of lives from the Ukrainian military and the civilian population have been saved,” Poroshenko said.
The US radars are to be used only against the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic. Russian maps are not loaded into the radars. So, in the event of attacks from the territory of the Russian Federation, their functionality will be limited.